Vehicle Remote Starters are a common and valuable possession for many vehicle owners. The remote starter system allows the vehicle owner that lives in a climate that is unusually warm or cold to start their engine for a predetermined amount of time and allow interior temperature of the vehicle to stabilize to a comfortable level. Vehicle remote starters consist of an electronics module that connects into the vehicle at various points and controls various vehicle functions by applying voltage to discrete wires to control various aspects of the vehicle operation. For example, a wire might be connected to the heater or air conditioning supply line and when voltage is applied the heater or air conditioning unit will activate and begin to climate control the vehicle interior.
The installation of the remote starter is typically performed by a technician that routes the individual wires from a remote starter module to each target wire that corresponds to a circuit in the vehicle that requires control. These wires are then connected to the circuit using a variety of methods, but most typically the process used is to remove a small section of the insulation covering the wire and then soldering the remote starter wire to the target wire using heat and a lead based solder. The connection is then covered over with insulating tape which protects the connection and prevents unintended electrical contact with any exposed metal surfaces. This prior art described method of attachment is labor intensive and normally a better solution is to devise a quick connect system that eliminates the need to solder and tape the wire connections.
For the purpose of the invention, prior art is briefly examined here, more specifically FIGS. 1 and 2 which describe a T-Harness system that was occasionally used to facilitate quicker installation of a subset of the remote starter wiring. The system in FIG. 1 describes a typical vehicle ignition system and its related connections including the connections made to the remote starter system. This includes the vehicle ignition cylinder 1, including a small length of wires and a connection plug 2 which provides a separation point for removal of the cylinder. The connection plug normally mates with its female counterpart 5 which attaches to the vehicle engine control systems and other related vehicle systems. When a remote starter 6 is installed, the T-Harness 12 is used to bridge the vehicle connectors for the purpose of providing connection points for the remote starter wires. This is accomplished using mating connectors 3,4 which match with the vehicle connectors and provide a subset of the wiring connections needed for the remote starter system.
The T-Harness allows the remote starter system to activate specific circuits in the vehicle 7-10 which control various functions including activation of the heater and air conditioning systems, the engine controller, the starter motor, and the vehicle accessories circuit. In addition the T-Harness allows access to the vehicle power feed by using the same wire 11 that powers the vehicle circuits normally. To further understand how the remote starter controls these circuits, further prior art provides a description of the function of a typical vehicle key cylinder as shown in FIG. 2. The drawing in FIG. 2 shows a schematic view of the ignition cylinder and describes the operation of the circuits that are activated when the operator inserts the key and rotates it in the cylinder. The actual function of the ignition cylinder is basically an array of switches which are closed depending on the position of the key. For example if the operator turns the key one “click” or position, one switch is closed. Further rotating the key then closes another switch and so on. The switches relate to the remote starter in that the remote starter module provides the same activation to these vehicle circuits through the T-Harness.
Surprisingly, the described T-Harness has failed to gain commercial or market acceptance. Remote starter installers still prefer to use the older method of attaching wires directly using soldering. There are a few reasons for this: First, the cost of the T-Harness can be expensive due to the large size of the wiring and connectors. The reason for this is because the vehicle ignition circuits require a prodigious amount of power to feed all of the vehicle electrical needs and as a result wires and connectors are made large enough to handle the electrical load. This results in the T-Harness needing the same large and expensive connector and wires which results in a large associated cost. Secondly, if the installer uses the T-Harness, the use of physical attachment of wires is still needed as a typical remote starter system might have thirty to thirty-five different wires that must be connected. As a result the installer of the remote starter system will still need to perform the soldering attachment operation and this makes the T-Harness less desirable since it does not eliminate the need to solder connections.